Thursday, 10 September 2009

Teoh inquest: Torture testimony ruled relevant

PETALING JAYA: “Mystery witness” T. Sivanesan, 22, can continue taking the stand in the Teoh Beng Hock inquest after the High Court here dismissed an application by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to expunge his testimony.

Justice Datin Yeoh Wee Siam said in her ruling that there was nothing illegal, incorrect or improper with the ruling made by Coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas on Tuesday regarding the relevance of evidence implicating the MACC.

“I have perused all the documents and considered all the submissions. There is nothing illegal, incorrect or improper by the Coroner to allow the witness Sivanesan to testify and I dismiss this application,” she said on Thursday.

Yeoh also rejected a stay of application by deputy public prosecutor Manoj Kurup, who represented the MACC in the application, and ordered all parties to proceed with the inquest.

Earlier, Manoj submitted to the court that the objections were based solely on the grounds that Sivanesan’s testimony would not assist the Coroner in the inquest but would be prejudicial to the MACC.

“The only essence or purpose of this witness was to smear, taint and tarnish the image of the MACC and nothing more. It has no nexus to the cause of death of Teoh,” he said.

Gobind Singh Deo, representing Teoh’s family, submitted that the Coroner should be allowed to conduct the inquest the way he sees fit.

He said the Coroner was dutybound to look into all matters necessary as to how the deceased died and this includes hearsay.

“Why was the MACC allowed to bring witnesses to say that nothing happened, while we aren’t allowed to bring our witness to say something had happened, did happen, and will continue to happen?” he said, adding that the Coroner has the prerogative to believe the witness or otherwise after being presented with the evidence.

On Wednesday, Datuk Abdul Razak Musa, who is holding a watching brief for the MACC, filed the application for a judicial review under Section 323 of the Criminal Procedure Code to stop Sivanesan from testifying in the inquest.

This was after Azmil Muntapha had allowed Sivanesan to take the stand despite strong objections from Abdul Razak.

Azmil said the testimony was relevant as Sivanesan’s alleged torture took place at the 14th floor of Plaza Masalam and the same officers could have been involved in both incidents.

The application also sought to expunge Sivanesan’s testimony together with a police report and a set of photographs of his injuries.

Sivanesan, an assistant manager with Puncak Rezeki Makmur Sdn Bhd, claimed that he was beaten with an iron rod and suffered injuries to his head, kidneys and genital area.

Teoh, who was the political secretary to Selangor executive councilor Ean Yong Hian Wah, was summoned to the MACC office located on the 14th floor of Plaza Masalam here on July 15 to be questioned over the alleged irregular disbursement of state funds.

He was found dead at the building’s fifth floor service corridor the following day.

At the conservative estimate of RM7.7 million taxes per draw based on the reply in the parliament, the Federal government, (with a 'premier' partner UMNO, which the PM claimed is an Islamic party) would have collected RM 261.8million 'halal' money.

Look at the trend of the draw dates.See any concentration of dates, before the Perak state government was hijacked?

And is there any concentration of dates, co-inciding with the time where the Selangor state government ex-co members and their assistants were being 'invited' to co-operate with Federal government agencies' investigations? And the 'special' blog on TBH that surfaced around that time?

When all that failed, then the 'religious' angle came into the picture with a. beer confiscation from 7-Eleven (which ironically is from the same business group that Sports Toto also belongs)b. self-proclaimed edits about state suthorities being given powers to go after Muslims 'dealing' with alcoholic beverages c. Cow-Head marchd. Disruption in the dialogue session called by the Selangor State government

Too many co-incidences. Very difficult to ignore.Malayians need to remember these carefully when they want to cast their votes and select the people that they want as their MPs and ADUNs

Have a Heart: Save IJN

Israel’s assault on Gaza, by air, sea and now land, has killed (at the time of this writing) more than 600 Palestinians, with more than 2,700 injured. Ten Israelis have been killed, three of them Israeli soldiers killed by friendly fire. Beyond the deaths and injuries, the people of Gaza are suffering a dire humanitarian crisis that is dismissed by the Israeli government. There is, however, Israeli opposition to the military assault. Read here...

Human Rights

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About Me

Child Safety

Parents, guardians, and adults who care for children face constant challenges when trying to help keep children safer in today's fast-paced world.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) offers easy-to-use safety resources to help address these challenges.
For decades, children were taught to stay away from "strangers." But this concept is difficult for children to grasp and often the perpetrator is someone the child knows.
It is more beneficial to help build children's confidence and teach them to respond to a potentially dangerous situation...
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Why Hamas is NOT the issue

Mohammed, age six, marched with determination to his bedroom, put on a record of the Fatah marching song, picked up a wooden toy rifle and marched out to the balcony. He pointed the rifle to the sky where minutes ago, Israeli planes flew over dropping bombs on Palestinian refugee sites. Mohammed told me he wanted to be a pilot so he could fight Israeli warplanes. “But Mohammed, the Palestinians do not have planes.” “I don’t care, I will fight them whatever way I can.”Was a resistance fighter born this minute or was he a “future terrorist”? (Beirut 1973)

How does one explain the horrific fate that has befallen caged Gaza – a land saturated with rubble and body parts – carpet-bombed by air, invaded by ground, attacked by sea? Put to the test of history, Israeli “explanations” fail the credibility test. continue here---------------------------------------------Robert Fisk: Leaders lie, civilians die, and lessons of history are ignoredWe've got so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don't care any more – providing we don't offend the Israelis. It's not clear how many of the Gaza dead are civilians, but the response of the Bush administration, not to mention the pusillanimous reaction of Gordon Brown, reaffirm for Arabs what they have known for decades: however they struggle against their antagonists, the West will take Israel's side. As usual, the bloodbath was the fault of the Arabs – who, as we all know, only understand force. ..Continue here

War on Gaza

Israel's failure to learnBy Nir Rosen (Aljazeera)

When George Bush, the US president, first entered the White House as the commander-in-chief in 2001, Palestinians were being killed in the al-Aqsa intifada.

Eight years later, as Bush prepares to leave office, Israel is carrying out one of the largest massacres in its 60-year occupation of Palestine.

The US, then and now, strongly backs Israel's offensive, justifying it as being, in fact, defensive.To continue read here ...